Running in the dark

I went on a walk last night with my friend Lisa and she asked what was new in my life. That's always an interesting question because mostly life is just always the same, with maybe one or two turns. This time I reported on Ragnar Colorado.
She asked me about the legs I ran and which was my favorite. The night run was hands down my favorite. I told her I love to run at night and would run at night all the time if I could. She asked me why and these are the reasons I came up with.
1. It's a lot cooler. Temperature wise and in awesomeness.
2. It's peaceful. Not as much traffic and people out and about.
3. You can't see how far you still have to go.
Bonus: If the moon is out, it's just that much better.

Number three is probably one of my favorites. When I run I have a mental block of "Holy crap I still have so far to go, I can't even see the finish, look at that giant hill in front of me, I think I better walk now".
When I run at night, it's dark. I'm not suppose to be able to see how far I still have to go. I can't see the finish; BECAUSE IT'S DARK! I can't see the full size of that hill in front of me. I just keep telling myself one more step and it's easier for me to just keep going.

Lisa commented that there had to be a metaphor for life in there somewhere and last night when I was talking to my cousin Jamee about the trials and difficulties of life we came up with a few ideas. Here's one of them. So many times we wish we could just see the big picture. If we only knew what was coming it would be easier to handle. NOT TRUE. If we could see the whole picture, we'd see that giant mountain we're going to have to climb and we'd be terrified and cry and probably sit down and refuse to move. Sometimes being in the dark is the biggest favor the Lord can do for us. Either way we have to climb the mountain, but maybe if we can't see the end, it will make it easier to just keep going one day at a time, with just a little bit of the road visible in front of us.

Maybe some people would rather see the whole mountain before they start running and maybe sometimes we should try and see the whole picture, but as for me, I prefer running in the dark.